This application claims the priority of Japanese Patent Application No. 2001-357615 filed on Nov. 22, 2001, which is incorporated herein by reference.
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a care bedpan and a care bedpan unit including the same.
2. Description of the Related Art
It is conventionally performed that a care bedpan is located next to a bed and in the case a care-receiving person is to use the bedpan, the bedpan is moved onto the bed for receiving and accumulating excrements by the bedpan on the bed whereupon the bedpan is carried to a restroom or similar for wasting the excrements.
However, it takes the trouble to carry the bedpan to the restroom and to waste the excrements, and the problem of odor hanging in the air exists. Moreover, excrements of the care-receiving person may scatter to outside of the bedpan or the care-receiver may feel some sense of shame in exposing his or her pubic region to face the bedpan when using the bedpan and thus lead to some discomfort in performing excretion.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a care bedpan that is capable of reducing the burden of wasting excrements within the care bedpan, of enabling easy use of the bedpan, and of reducing the burden on both, the care-receiving person as well as the care-giving person.
The present invention relates to a movable and portable bedpan provided with a bedpan main body having an opening that is pressed against or disposed to oppose a pubic region of a care-receiving person for receiving excrements, and with a cover provided to extend frontward from an upper portion of the opening of the bedpan main body to thereby form an entire opening of the bedpan together with the opening of the bedpan main body, wherein the cover is held by a holding mechanism which angle is adjustable, either in a multi-staged or non-staged manner, so as to adjust the size of the entire opening and to shield one""s pubic region to be hardly visible from above.
By providing such a cover on the opening of the bedpan, excrements (and especially urine) can be prevented from scattering, and since the pubic region of the care-receiving person will be hardly visible, the sense of shame of the care-receiving person may be reduced at the time of using the bedpan so as to ease mental burdens occurring at the time of using the bedpan.
The present invention further relates to a movable and portable bedpan provided with a bedpan main body having an opening that is pressed against or disposed to oppose a pubic region of a care-receiving person for receiving excrements, an inner side of said opening being provided with a front-sided bottom portion that extends in a substantially horizontal manner rearward from a front end and that is surrounded by a low bottom wall portion, and a rear-sided rising portion that rises substantially upward from rear-side of said front-sided bottom portion and at least both sides of which are surrounded by a low side wall portion,
wherein a rearward facing washing water outlet for discharging washing water for processing excrements in a rearward direction is formed at a bottom wall portion at a tip end of said front-sided bottom portion whereas a suction inlet for sucking said excrements and washing water is formed at a lower end portion of a front-sided rising wall portion rearward of said washing water outlet, and
wherein a cleaning water outlet for jetting cleaning water for cleaning one""s pubic region in a frontward direction is formed further upward of said suction inlet of said rear-sided rising wall portion and the cleaning water is sucked by said suction inlet. Here, an excrement sensor may be provided on the bottom surface of the front-sided bottom portion for detecting excrements.
With this arrangement, the care-receiving person may use the bedpan on the bed or similar upon approaching his or her pubic region to the opening of the bedpan mounted on the bed and may flush the excrements with the washing water. The washing water will be discharged from the front end portion of the front-sided bottom portion in the rearward direction and with a suction inlet being provided in this rear direction, the excrements will be effectively guided to the suction inlet. Through the cleaning water (warm water etc.) that is discharged from the cleaning water outlets provided at the rear-sided rising portion of the front-sided wall portion, one""s pubic region after excretion may be cleaned, and in the case an air outlet for drying (warm air blowing outlet etc.) is additionally provided at the rising wall portion, one""s pubic region may be further dried after cleaning. It is accordingly possible to achieve a care bedpan that causes quite a small burden on both, the care-receiving person and the care-giving person.
In the present invention, there may be arranged a care bedpan system comprising the above care bedpan and an excrement collecting device for sucking and collecting excrements together with washing water from the bedpan. The excrement collecting device may include a suction hose for sucking excrements that is connected to the bedpan, a suction device that is connected to the hose for setting the interior of the hose to negative pressure so as to suck and transfer the excrements through the hose, an excrement tank for collecting excrements that are transferred through the hose, and an excrement tank holder for fixing the excrement tank in a freely attachable/detachable manner. It is further possible to provide a washing water supplying device for supplying washing water for washing excrements for the washing water outlet on the bedpan wherein the waste water after washing is collected by the excrement collecting device together with the excrements.
In another preferred embodiment, a cleaning device for supplying a cleaning medium such as warm water for cleaning one""s pubic region after excretion (hereinafter referred to as xe2x80x9cwarm waterxe2x80x9d) from a warm water tank to the discharge outlet within the bedpan and for jetting the same through the discharge outlet is provided, wherein waste water after cleaning is received by the bedpan and collected through the excrement collecting device. A drying device for making warm air for drying one""s pubic region after cleaning through the cleaning device blown out through an air-blowing outlet of the bedpan is also provided.
A circulating conduit may be formed for accumulating, at the time of collecting the sucked excrements into the collecting device together with air, the excrements in the excrement tank while only air is sucked to a sucking driving unit through a suction conduit and wherein pressurized air that has passed through the suction driving unit and that has become positive pressure on the downstream side is circulated to the bedpan side as air (pressure air) for sending out washing water and/or cleaning water to the bedpan. The pressurized air may also be circulated to the bedpan side to be utilized as air for drying one""s pubic region after cleaning.
According to such an arrangement, upon utilizing the fact that air for sucking and collecting excrements and others is not only used for its sucking actions, but also its properties that it becomes pressurized air downstream of the suction driving unit, air may be circulated to the bedpan side as pressure air for sending out washing water or warm water for cleaning and the suction driving unit may thus be concurrently used as a means for sending out washing water or warm water for cleaning. In this manner, the structure may be simplified and become compact when compared with a case in which an exclusive means for sending out is provided and at least a part of exhaust of suction air may be reduced so that its exhaust sound will be quiet and its odor reduced.
The circulating conduit is preferably provided with the discharge outlet for discharging a part of the circulating air sent through the suction driving unit, to the exterior and an adjusting valve for adjusting the amount of discharge of air through the discharge outlet. By releasing a part of air in such a manner, suction force from the bedpan may be improved and the suction force may be further adjusted.
It should be noted that it is alternatively possible to provide an opening/closing valve in parallel to (or upstream of the discharge outlet and the adjusting valve) so as to generate maximum suction force at the time of sucking excrements, and it is also possible to close the opening/closing valve after temporary releasing all of air in the opened condition thereof to move a specified amount of air to be discharged from the adjusting valve. The adjusting valve and the opening/closing valve may also be replaced by a single valve device (for instance, a complex solenoid valve etc.) instead of providing them separately. It is further possible to employ an arrangement in which only the opening/closing valve is provided while the discharge outlet (adjusting valve) is omitted, and the opening/closing valve is opened when required.